Poor Family

  Chapter 76 Emergency help

Li Yanqing brought the wild geese to the door of the house. The magpie who had been waiting at the door for a long time finally recognized that the person behind the little official was her sister. What's the matter?"

  Dayan finally saw her relatives. She hugged her younger sister tightly and burst into tears.

  At this moment, Third Aunt Gu from the next door came over with two new chicken coops. She looked at the geese and found that her hair was disheveled, so she asked Li Yanqing in a low voice, "Brother Qing, who is she! What happened?"

  Li Yanqing smiled wryly and said: "It's the sister of the magpie. Her father wanted to sell her to Yichunyuan, but I happened to save her."

Third Aunt Gu couldn't hear the word 'Yichunyuan' the most. She immediately raised her eyebrows and said furiously: "They are all shameless men who bully their wives and daughters without the ability. If he dares to come here, See how I deal with him!"

Third Aunt Gu immediately felt deep sympathy for Dayan, and stepped forward to persuade her, "Don't be afraid, little lady, Brother Qing is a good person, so you can stay here with peace of mind, he will definitely take care of it for you, don't worry! You heartless If father dares to bring someone here, my aunt will mobilize the whole village to protect you."

  Dayan was even more moved, knelt down and kowtowed to Aunt Gu, choked up and said, "Thank you, Auntie, for your love!"

  Third Aunt Gu quickly threw away the chicken coop, helped the wild goose up, looked at it carefully, and couldn't help but smiled and praised: "You are so handsome, go back and freshen up first, and Auntie will come to see you when you have time."

The magpie helped her elder sister into the house, and Aunt Ju also understood the general idea, and quickly boiled water to wash her face. Third Aunt Gu smiled and watched the wild goose enter the yard. Daughter-in-law, isn't a good thing coming soon?

  Things developed faster than Li Yanqing imagined. At dusk, a carriage rushed towards Li Yanqing's house, and stopped abruptly in front of Li Yanqing's house. The driver jumped out of the carriage, opened the door and helped the patriarch Li Wenyou out.

Li Wenyou's skin has turned dark, and he has obviously lost a lot of weight. His robe used to look like a soaked bean, but now it hangs loosely on his body, and even his hat is reversed, but his face is full Anxious, and not caring about his own image, he pointed to Uncle Zhong who came out to greet him and said, "Let Qing'er come to see me!"

   At this time, Li Yanqing walked out quickly, and saw the patriarch at a glance. He almost didn't recognize him, and quickly stepped forward to support Li Wenyou, "Patriarch, slow down!"

  Seeing Li Yanqing, Li Wenyou breathed a sigh of relief, "I'm afraid that if you're not at home tonight, you will miss something."

   "Patriarch, what happened?"

   "Apart from the business, what else can you do? Your father is so anxious that he can't eat for a few days, but you are leisurely at home, and you are still arguing about injustices everywhere. Don't you really have nothing to do?"

  Li Wenyou's tone was full of dissatisfaction, Li Yanqing didn't know what happened, and didn't dare to talk back, so he invited the anxious patriarch to the living room, and ordered Aunt Ju to order a bowl of tea.

   Li Wenyou slapped the table anxiously, "Don't bother with the tea anymore, I've gotten angry from drinking water for the past two days, please sit down quickly! Let me finish the important thing."

  Li Yanqing didn't dare to mention the wild geese, so he quickly sat down and listened attentively.

Li Wenyou raised his head and closed his eyes to calm down his anxious heart. After a while, he said: "The Caoji Grain Company in Beijing is our biggest customer. One hundred and fifty wen, a total of five thousand taels of silver, and paid us a deposit of two thousand taels of silver. We must transport the wheat to Bianjing before February 25th. If the time is delayed, they will not accept the goods , we must return double the deposit.”

  Today is the tenth day of February, and there is only half a month left. Li Yanqing quickly asked, "Then where is the wheat now?"

   "Still in the Anyang warehouse!"

   "Ah!" Li Yanqing was taken aback, "Is there still time?"

   "How else could your father be so anxious that he can't eat? The fleet from Anyang to Bianjing will take ten days at the fastest, but now we don't even have a shadow of the boat. You say you are in a hurry, but you are not in a hurry!"

  Li Yanqing didn't ask any more questions. Something must have happened to their fleet, otherwise the patriarch wouldn't be in such a hurry. He restrained the countless questions in his heart and patiently listened to the patriarch.

At this moment, Mrs. Chrysanthemum came in with two bowls of tea. Li Wenyou calmed down, took a sip of hot tea, then put down the tea bowl and continued to talk to Li Yanqing: "Our fleet should be transporting grain south ten days ago, but it happened at this At the crucial point, our fleet was forcibly confiscated by the army. The army said that there was a change in the Liao army and that they might go to war. Not only our ships, but all the civilian ships in Anyang County were confiscated. We could not find them in Anyang County. When the ships brought the food out, I had to come back and find a way.”

Li Yanqing understands why the patriarch is so anxious. In the past five years, their grain business has experienced many twists and turns, and it took a little effort to start it. Seeing that the business is about to go on the road to prosperity, such an incident happened. If it is not handled properly , Their five years of hard work will be in vain.

At this time, Li Wenyou was puzzled and said: "There is actually something strange about it. I don't know who secretly reported to the military and falsely accused us of selling military rations in private. As a result, the army came to seal up our warehouse and demanded 20,000 yuan from us. All the grain and stones were confiscated."

   "Has the patriarch found a solution?" Li Yanqing asked worriedly.

   "I spent a thousand dollars on management. The military reluctantly agreed to temporarily lift the food seizure, but asked us to transport the food within five days, otherwise it would be confiscated directly."

Li Wenyou rubbed his hands, and said anxiously: "There is a time limit in the capital, and the military requires us to dispose of the food within a few days, but we don't have a ship in our hands. I have been looking for connections in the past two days, but I have been everywhere. Hitting a wall, I finally got the news that Wang Wanhao's fleet can transport food, so I rushed to Wang's house early this morning."

   "Wasn't the Wang family's fleet confiscated by the army?" Li Yanqing was puzzled.

  Li Wenyou smiled bitterly. In the past, he always laughed at Wang Wanhao for spending huge sums of money to manage the army, but now it seems that Wang Wanhao does have the foresight to see farther than himself.

"This is Wang Wanhao's shrewdness. His fleet is anchored under the name of the Xiang Army. It is an army fleet in itself. Of course, it will not be requisitioned. At this time, they can be unimpeded. The entire Xiangzhou can The ships on the road included fifty cargo ships belonging to the Wang family.

I went to Wang's house today to borrow a boat from Wang Wanhao, and I learned that he still has 20 unused boats, which are just enough for us to transport 20,000 shi of wheat. Originally, Wang Wanhao agreed without hesitation, but Zhang Junbao appeared at this time, and things changed in the end. up. "

   "Why?" Li Yanqing's heart twisted into a ball.

Li Wenyou sighed lowly, "The matter has to start from ten years ago. Ten years ago, there was a severe drought in Xiangzhou, and the Yongji Canal stopped flowing. The soup was almost dry and turned into a trickle. The land of the Li family is downstream, and the Zhang family cut off the water. No matter how my father came to beg, the Zhang family refused to agree. As a result, the two families fought over the water, and five young children died, two from the Zhang family, three from the Li family, and two from the two families. The enmity between the two families has been forged like this, and now the relationship between the two seems to be getting along, but that's just the surface!"

   Li Yanqing was stunned, he had never heard of this matter before, the patriarch and Zhang Junbao greeted each other with a smile in the past! Unexpectedly, there is still such a blood feud hidden between the two families of Li and Zhang.

   "What the patriarch said... Could it be that Zhang Junbao took the opportunity to add insult to injury?"

Li Wenyou nodded, with uncontrollable resentment on his face, "Today is the first day of the Wang family's treat, and Zhang Junbao is also here. He heard that I wanted to ask the Wang family to borrow a boat, so he immediately offered to borrow a boat. Transporting a batch of cloth to Bianjing obviously took the opportunity to stab me in the back, but the Wang family and the Zhang family have a deep interest relationship. Although I first proposed to borrow the boat, Wang Wanhao didn't want to offend the Zhang family, so he Express neutrality, neither of the two families will borrow, the Zhang family has no loss, but we have suffered."

   "Leader, just speak directly! What do you need me to do?" Li Yanqing also asked straightforwardly.

  Li Wenyou picked up the teacup, took a sip of the hot tea, and then slowly said: "Wang Wanhao's grandson won the ninth place in the county examination, and he specially served wine for three days to celebrate."

  Li Yanqing understood, "The patriarch asked me to talk to Wang Gui about this matter, so that Wang Gui can persuade his grandfather?"

"That's exactly what it means. Tomorrow is the day for the Wang family to treat guests. Wang Wanhao also invited you. You have to ask Wang Gui to persuade his grandfather to lend us a fleet of boats tomorrow. I will go to Anyang overnight with the boat tomorrow night. There is still time." Can catch up."

  Of course Li Yanqing understood the urgency of the situation, so he immediately nodded and agreed, "I'll go tomorrow morning."

  Li Wenyou wanted to try his luck at two other families with boats, so he got up anxiously to leave, and Li Yanqing sent him out of the gate.

Li Wenyou got into the carriage, opened the curtain and apologized to Li Yanqing: "It stands to reason that I should first congratulate you on the first place in the county examination, and then serve wine to celebrate like Wang Wanhao, but now this matter is imminent, and I can't take care of it for the time being." is you."

   "I don't care."

   "Alright then! See you tomorrow."

The carriage started and rushed towards the darkness until the carriage disappeared. Li Yanqing returned to his room. He sat down in his seat and thought about how to raise this matter with Wang Gui tomorrow. At this time, the magpie brought him a A bowl of hot tea.

  Li Yanqing took a sip of tea and asked, "How is your sister?"

   "She has already fallen asleep, what happened today scared my sister."

  Li Yanqing nodded, "The patriarch is very busy these two days and has no time to take care of her. She will stay with me for a while. After the patriarch is busy, I will intercede for her and she can go back."

  . ． ． ． ． ． ． ．

In the morning of the next day, Li Yanqing rode a donkey to Tangwang Village. Tangwang Village is the largest village in Xiaohe Township, with a population of more than 300 households. Among the four gentry families in Xiaohe Township, Tang and Wang lived. His grandfather, Wang Wanhao, ranked ninth in the high school in the county examination. He was overjoyed and set up wine for three days to entertain his relatives, friends and fellow villagers.

  Today is the second day of the Wang family’s treat, and it is also the first day. Most of the people who come here are prominent people from Xiaohe Township. There are many guests in front of the gate of the Wang family. Wang Wanhao personally leads several sons to welcome the guests at the door.

  A squire in a black brocade jacket stepped forward quickly, and handed a gift wrapped in red silk to Wang Wanhao, "Congratulations to Lingsun County for entering high school. This is a small gift from me, and it is not a respect!"

   "Where! Where! Brother Yan is too polite, he has worked hard all the way, please come into the room to drink tea and rest!" Wang Wanhao hurriedly asked his youngest son to lead the guests into the yard.

"congratulations!"

  Another guest came and saluted with a smile on his face. Wang Wanhao greeted him with a smile and patted his arm affectionately.

  The whole Wang family, young and old, was busy inside and out.

But today's protagonist, the petty official Wang Gui, is at leisure. He holds a pair of bows and arrows and shoots birds with Tang Huai in the woods at the entrance of the village. It also greatly increased his confidence, and he wandered around with a bow and arrow all day long.

  In the woods, Wang Gui aimed at a pheasant on the treetop, 'Whoosh! ’ The ground shot an arrow, and it precisely shot through the pheasant’s body, and the pheasant fell from the tree.

  A little lady ran up happily, "The second one was also shot by your elder brother!"

  Wang Gui said triumphantly to Tang Huai: "This is what your sister said. I shot the first pheasant. Your arrow missed."

  Tang Huai curled his lips, "I didn't miss that arrow. My little sister's heart was biased. She has been biased towards you since she was a child. You know it well!"

   "Brother! What are you talking about me?"

  The little lady jumped up with a pheasant, her name was Tang Yuaner, she was Tang Huai's baby sister, two years younger than Wang Gui, and she followed Wang Gui all day long.

She dressed up very beautifully today, wearing a light green embroidered half-sleeved jacket, a bright yellow underwear inside, and a pomegranate pleated skirt underneath, her hair was neatly combed, and she had long thin eyebrows, She has big bright eyes, a round pretty face, and a cute little dimple on her cheek when she smiles.

  She happily handed the pheasant to Wang Gui, "Brother Gui, here it is!"

  Tang Huai coughed heavily, "Yuaner, I'm your brother anyway, why do you prefer Agui?"

   Tang Yuaner rolled his eyes at him, "Where am I biased, because it was Brother Gui who shot it, so of course I have to give it to him!"

  Wang Gui chuckled, "Yuan still understands the truth. Some people are not as good as others, but they refuse to admit defeat. They always say some sour sarcastic remarks. Yuan, let's shoot rabbits."

   "Okay!" Ah Yuan clapped her hands happily, "Let's go to the river! There are the most rabbits."

  Tang Huai was so angry that he turned his head to ignore them. At this moment, he suddenly pointed to the path in the distance, and shouted in surprise: "Hey! Isn't that Lao Li?"

  Wang Gui also saw it, and saw Li Yanqing riding a donkey leisurely towards the entrance of the village. The two were overjoyed and ran up together.

   "Brother Gui, wait for me!" A Yuaner hurriedly followed.

   In the past two days, I have a bit of a cold, cough, runny nose, and groggy, but Lao Gao will still persevere, and I hope everyone will continue to support me!

  (end of this chapter)